Designing Search E-Book

Greg Nudelman

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 399

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Best practices, practical advice, and design ideas for successful ecommerce search A glaring gap has existed in the market for a resource that offers a comprehensive, actionable design patterns and design strategies for ecommerce search--but no longer. With this invaluable book, user experience designer and user researcher Greg Nudelman shares his years of experience working on popular ecommerce sites as he tackles even the most difficult ecommerce search design problems. Nudelman helps you create highly effective and intuitive ecommerce search design solutions and he takes a unique forward-thinking look at trends such as integrating searching with browsing to create a single-finding user interface. * Offers much-needed insight on how to create ecommerce search experiences that truly benefit online shoppers * Juxtaposes examples of common design pitfalls against examples of highly effective ecommerce search design solutions * Presents comprehensive guidance on ecommerce search design strategies for the Web, mobile phone applications, and new tablet devices * Shares the author's years of unique experience working with ecommerce from the perspective of the user's experience Designing ecommerce Search is mandatory reading if you are interested in orchestrating successful ecommerce search strategies.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Part I: Optimizing eCommerce Search Results Pages

Chapter 1: Starting from Zero: Winning Strategies for No Search Results Pages

The No Search Results Page: Your Key to Competitive Search Advantage

Create a Robust Partial Match Strategy

Employ Multiple Content Strategies

Case Study: Hotmail No Search Results Page

How Can Your Site-Search Analytics Help You?

References

Chapter 2: How Shoppers Search

How People Search

How Shoppers Search

Search As a Multichannel Experience

References

Perspective References

Chapter 3: Choosing the Right Search Results Page Layout

Using Liquid Layouts

Using Fixed-Width Layouts

Optimizing for Your Best Customers

Handling Margins in Fixed-Width Layouts

References

Chapter 4: Balancing Pogosticking and Page Relevance

Pogosticking Is No Fun

Overly Rich Search Results Can Be Unhealthy for Your Site

Optimize Results for Your Business and Your Customers

The “Feel” of Searching

References

Chapter 5: Making $10,000 a Pixel: Optimizing Thumbnail Images in Search Results

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Make Thumbnail Images Large and Informative

Include Supporting Text

Go Easy on the Borders

Keep the Focus on the Image Content

Help Customers to Judge an Item’s Actual Size

Be Creative in Choosing Informative Images

References

Chapter 6: Best Practices for Ads in Search Results

Don’t Kill Your Golden Goose

Integrate Ad Displays with the Rest of Your Site

Make Sure Customers Can Easily Distinguish Ads from Content

Keep Ads Relevant and Appropriate

Understand How Your Customers Interact with Ads

Understand What Makes a Good Ad

Limit Cannibalization

Provide Ads for Internal Merchandise Instead of Third-Party Advertising

Pay Special Attention to Ads if There Are No Search Results

In Conclusion

Eyetracking Tips and Tricks

Part II: Designing eCommerce Search Interactions

Chapter 7: Best Practices for Designing Faceted Search Filters

Choose Drill-Down or Parallel Selection

Provide Undo for Filter Selections

Make All Filters Easily Available

Provide Only Filter Options That Reflect the Available Inventory

Provide Filter Options That Encompass the Complete Inventory

Test Your Faceted Search Interface

The Design of Faceted Search UI Controls

Chapter 8: Numeric Filters: Issues and Best Practices

Representing Discrete Values for Aspects as Sets of Ranges

Numeric Sliders

Chapter 9: Date Filters: Successful Calendar Design Patterns

Provide Good Defaults

Show Only Valid Date Values

Minimize Clicks

Retain Customer-Entered Values

Consider if You Need Your Customers to Enter Dates

References

Chapter 10: The Mystery of Filtering by Sorting

Filtering by Sorting: It Was Colonel Mustard in the Study

The Mystery of Filtering by Sorting

Five Myths of Sorting

Case Study: Redesigning Hotmail Sorting

Chapter 11: Designing Query Disambiguation Solutions for Online Shopping

Which Canon?

Show Related Searches

Default to Category

Present a Prominent Category Selector

Case Study: Home Depot Query Disambiguation Redesign Using the Expanding Category Widget Design Pattern

Clarify, Then Refine

References

Chapter 12: Introducing the More Like This Design Pattern

Show Me More

Make Group Organization Simple and Obvious

Focus on Helping Customers Make Decisions

Format Groups Differently from Search Results

Case Study: TripAdvisor Redesign Using the Two-Dimensional More Like This Pattern

Chapter 13: Designing Effective Breadcrumbs

Historical Breadcrumbs

Hierarchical Breadcrumbs

Emergent Breadcrumb Designs That Integrate Search and Browse

Case Study: Integrated Faceted Breadcrumbs on Walmart

Usability, SEO, and Faceted Navigation

On the Future of Breadcrumbs

References

Part III: The Future of eCommerce Search

Chapter 14: The Brave New World of Visual Browsing

Introducing Visual Browsing

Browsing Images Using Text Attributes or Tags

Using Images in Queries

Using Images for Navigating in the Real World

Reading Barcode Images on Mobile Devices

Augmented Reality and Mobile Near-Field Computing

Social Search Can’t be Solved by an Algorithm

Personalized Search and Recommender Systems

References

Chapter 15: Designing Mobile Search: Turning Limitations into Opportunities

Understanding Mobile Platforms

Optimizing User Experience for Mobile Context of Use

Changing Search Paradigms

References

Chapter 16: Design Patterns for More Effective Mobile Faceted Search

Mobile Faceted Search Challenges

Four Corners and Modal Overlay Patterns

Status Bar Drop-Down Menu Pattern

Watermark Pattern with the Full-Page Refinement Options Pattern

Teaser Mobile Design Pattern

Basic/Advanced Parallel Architecture Pattern

References

Chapter 17: Search on Tablet Devices: The Flight of Discovery

Tablet Behaviors and Ergonomics

A Fine Line: The iPad as a Portable Device

Buttons Are a Hack

Tablet eCommerce Search

What’s Next?

References

Conclusion

Copyright

Foreword

Introduction

Part I:

Optimizing eCommerce Search Results Pages

Search is a wicked problem of terrific consequence… the defining element of user experience. It changes the way we find everything… It shapes how we learn and what we believe. —Peter Morville

Chapter 1 Starting from Zero: Winning Strategies for No Search Results Pages

Chapter 2 How Shoppers Search

Chapter 3 Choosing the Right Search Results Page Layout

Chapter 4 Balancing Pogosticking and Page Relevance

Chapter 5 Making $10,000 a Pixel: Optimizing Thumbnail Images in Search Results

Chapter 6 Best Practices for Ads in Search Results

Chapter 1

Starting from Zero: Winning Strategies for No Search Results Pages

The No Search Results Page: Your Key to Competitive Search Advantage page 4Create a Robust Partial Match Strategy page 11Employ Multiple Content Strategies page 15Case Study: Hotmail No Search Results Page page 17How Can Your Site-Search Analytics Help You, by Louis Rosenfeld page 19

Search, more than any other activity, is a living, evolving process of discovery—a conversation between a customer and the Web site. Unfortunately, this conversation is often fraught with miscommunication, and so it is critical for you to keep this conversation going even when the customer has initiated a search that yielded no results.

Unfortunately, the typical product team has no coherent strategy for cases when there are no search results, generally treating such occurrences as a “user error.” Most teams spend the bulk of their design phase working on the search results pages for a successful search. Then in the harried moments prior to launch, the engineers hurriedly slap something together for the no search results page. Such an approach is detrimental to the success of a customer’s search experience.

In my experience, the effort and ingenuity a product team invests in the no search results page is indicative of its overall dedication to customer success. Ignoring this special kind of search results page virtually guarantees a mediocre search experience and contributes to obscurity in the ecommerce marketplace. On the other hand, if a team thinks creatively about the case when there are no search results and focuses on customer needs, it can turn a temporary snag in communication into an opportunity for deeper connection and a source of tremendous competitive advantage.

The No Search Results Page: Your Key to Competitive Search Advantage

To see how original thinking about the no search results page can revolutionize an entire industry, consider the history of Google. Although a relative latecomer to an already saturated search market, Google blew away all competition through an unapologetic dedication to customer success. One critical innovation was the Google Did you mean… feature, which gave the process of discovery a safety net and made exploration more fun. This feature was the result of deliberate and original thinking about how to help people correct the misspellings that were a common cause of the appearance of the no search results page. Controlled vocabulary substitution redefined the way Google does search, and today, the Did you mean… feature shown in Figure 1-1 is a virtual necessity for a successful search implementation.

Figure 1-1: The Google Did you mean… feature

If you want to create a killer search app, begin with the no search results page. Starting from zero forces your team to address the most difficult design questions up front and honestly assess your engineering budget and capabilities. More important, your team can define the entire search user interface design problem more precisely—in a compelling and possibly even original way.